Dissident Tories are ready to risk one of their safest seats after party bosses withdrew the whip from their MP, the former Home Office minister Charles Wardle.

About a quarter of the active membership in Battle, East Sussex, including a former association chairman, will this weekend finalise plans to field an alternative candidate in protest at Tory central office's handling of concerns about their official candidate, businessman Greg Barker.

Mr Wardle, who announced last year he was standing down at the election after causing a furore by taking a £120,000 a year part-time job with Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed, is now calling for the Tory ethics and integrity committee to investigate claims his successor, businessman Greg Barker, made on his CV about his business career.

The editor of the Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore - a constituent of Mr Wardle's - and the Conservative chief whip, James Arbuthnot - for whom Mr Moore "fagged" at Eton - are taking on Mr Wardle and his new boss, Mr Fayed.

Mr Arbuthnot withdrew the whip because of reports in the constituency that Mr Wardle was ready to back a rival candidate. Mr Wardle denies that and claims central office is trying to bully him. "They think I'm pushy and obstinate," he said last night, "and they are determined to discredit me."

Two weeks ago the constituency passed a vote of confidence in Mr Barker.